Cover Story
From Holland to Hoboken, the Stars are the Same By Gabriele Amersbach
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December 2021
50plus LIFE
Meevers-Scholte, explaining his stomach was distended from starvation. He tells a chilling tale of chopping down a pine Louis Meevers-Scholte was born in a windmill tree to cook and eat the bark. As he dragged the tree in a small Dutch village in 1934. Eventually both home, someone grabbed it. Meevers-Scholte and the Meevers-Scholte, age 9, told windmill would end up in him, “I’ll chop off your hand America, bearing scars of a war if you don’t let go.” The hand that defined his childhood. came home with the tree. Yet, relying on his faith and “I had nightmares for years wits, Meevers-Scholte not only about that day,” he says. survived but thrived in dark Despite these deprivations, times that would crush many. the family survived until the His life is a living embodiment last day of the war in 1945. of his personal philosophy: Enemy soldiers rounded up “Life is what you make it — it’s his father, who was Jewish, your choice how you live it.” and 13 other men. They were In 1940, when Meeversmassacred, while their families Scholte was 5, Nazi Germany were forced to watch. took over the country, a Meevers-Scholte was also dark period of violence and injured. As he drew what he repression, especially against thought would be his last the Jewish population. breath, “Jesus came into Only 38,000 of the my soul,” he explains. “I 140,000 Jews in the know I’m never alone.” Netherlands survived He had found a lifelong violence and deportation spiritual belief that has to death camps. sustained him through Meevers-Scholte’s many hardships. family was not spared. After the massacre, Soldiers shot into his Meevers-Scholte knew home (one can find he had to leave in order six bullet holes in the to survive. At age 10, he windmill, which now rests stole away, skating down in Holland, Michigan, a the long canal out of gift from Queen Beatrix Louis Meevers-Scholte, here and on the cover, his village, with only a of Holland in 1955). in a few of his self-made Santa Claus ensembles, During the five-year each representing a different country of origin. flashlight and a bottle of occupation, MeeversThe pergola and all its seasonal decorations are water. Eventually he reached Scholte and a gang also his own construction and design. Belgium, just one of of other boys joined several countries in war-torn Europe he would the underground resistance. He tells of hiding pass through on his way to America, his final underneath a train loaded with families heading for destination. the death camps. When the train started, the boys Meevers-Scholte found ways to survive, from climbed up the cars to the section where the engine working on farms to selling abandoned newspapers was coupled to the rest of the train. he found in train stations. In France, he briefly slept Meevers-Scholte describes their heart-stopping in the Eiffel Tower. The swaying of the tower made maneuver: “We stabbed the guard and uncoupled him seasick, so he moved on to an elevator in the the engine from the cars. The people in the cars Arc de Triomphe. were then able to run away. A lot of people’s lives “I liked that better,” says Meevers-Scholte. “It was were saved.” warm.” The group of boys also found creative ways to Eventually he reached Spain. There, Meeverssteal food to deliver to starving Dutch families — Scholte begged for food at restaurants or hung out and to Jewish families in hiding, including Anne near the bullfight rings. After the bull was killed, Frank in Amsterdam. poor people were able to divide up the meat. “We were all hungry, every one of us,” says www.50plusLifePA.com
